Pierre Gasly impressed by the Alpine single-seater
The Formula 1 season came to an end in 2022 after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last Sunday. Well, not quite, since post-season testing took place immediately afterwards. An opportunity for Pierre Gasly to test his new Alpine single-seater, with which he is "impressed"!
The post-season tests took place in Abu Dhabi right after Sunday’s Grand Prix. Two programs were running concurrently: the first program aimed to test the cars with Pirelli 2023 tires, while the other program was exclusively reserved for young drivers.
Fernando Alonso had the opportunity to drive the Aston Martin for the first time, Nyck de Vries in the AlphaTauri, Oscar Piastri in the McLaren race car, Logan Sargeant in the Williams, Nico Hülkenberg in the Haas, and of course Pierre Gasly in the Alpine race car.
Gasly couldn’t hope for a better day.
Pierre Gasly will have raced his last Grand Prix with AlphaTauri. From now on, it is for the Alpine team that the French driver will fight. He will team up with another French driver in the championship, Esteban Ocon, in 2023 to extract the best performances from the car. He completed 130 laps of the Yas Marina circuit behind the wheel of the Alpine A522. The goal of his testing is obviously to start adapting to the car and begin the work of integration and installation of the details. He achieved the fourth best time in his private tests in Abu Dhabi, behind the three Ferrari drivers. Delighted, he said he is ready to open the next chapter of his career.
It was really fantastic to be able to take the wheel of the A522 for the first time, and I must admit that it is an impressive car. I understand better why the team is fourth in the championship. My objective today was to get used to my new environment, to work closely with the engineers, and overall, to deepen my learning of the car and understand its characteristics, he adds.
“Everything went smoothly”
The least we can say is that the French driver quickly adapted to his car, as he is just behind the Ferrari domination.
The adaptation went very well. I started the day with a lot of open-mindedness because it’s a complete change of environment, a new car, with differences in sensations, steering, acceleration, pedal hardness, etc. It was a bit surprising at first, but I managed to do everything I wanted to do, to be comfortable in the car.
The tricolor driver nevertheless mentioned being in a transition phase between the AlphaTauri and Alpine teams: (e) Sportingly, I am fully focused on next year, [but] I still have a few commitments to fulfill with AlphaTauri.
They have a lot of front grip, speed in medium corners, things that I was looking for this season. Based on today, I can clearly identify very good strong points on this car as well as its potential. It finished fourth in the championship and it’s not without reason. Now I understand the reason, with this package, the way the team operates, the engineers’ philosophy.
Pierre’s first day 💙#Alpine pic.twitter.com/UNSBYefcYG
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) November 22, 2022
